Easy to use. Fast and responsive apps. Rich features set. Well designed for collaboration. Generous free storage allotment.

Cons

Lack some collaboration features offered by the best of the competition.

Bottom Line

Syncing and storage tool Box is easy to use and highly customizable, letting you integrate your account with a wide range of apps and services.

Box isn't quite as well known a syncing and storage service as its most famous competitor, Dropbox, but it is a highly reliable and full-featured tool. It's especially well suited for businesses, but is also useful to home users. This review focuses on the personal version of Box, which offers a generous amount of free storage and connects to a wide variety of apps and services. With all this going for it, Box joins Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive as a PCMag Editors' Choice for online syncing and storage services.

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Pricing and PlansBox offers free accounts, paid personal accounts, and business-grade accounts. At 10GB, a free Box personal account comes with five times as much as space as a free Dropbox account's 2GB. Box imposes a 250MB limit on the size of files you can upload with a free account, however. That limit may be a deal-killer for designers, video editors, or musicians working with huge files, but it should be plenty for users who are just storing documents and JPGs, rather than large files from multimedia content-creation programs. A paid Box Personal Pro plan, which costs $10 per month, lets you upload files up to 5GB and gives you a total of 100GB of space.

In addition to personal plans, Box also offers business accounts. PCMag reviewed Box for Business separately. The small business and enterprise plans include greater security and encryption, as well as more administrative control for sharing files. See the linked review for additional details.

As a point of comparison, Dropbox offers 1TB of space for $9.99 per month or $99 per year in its Pro plan. SugarSync offers less space, 250GB, for the same $9.99 per month.

For the most bang for your buck 226555">IDrive offers 1TB for just $59.50 per year. OneDrive is nearly as competitively priced, with a 1TB account going for just $6.99 per month or $69.99 per year. If you buy a 1TB OneDrive plan, Microsoft throws in a Microsoft Office 365 subscription, too, which could be a huge value-add, since it gets you the installable Office applications.

OneDrive offers 15GB of free space for U.S. users, but that's going down to 5GB some time this year. Google Drive gives you 15GB to start. That amount is spread across Google Drive, Gmail, and Photos, but not all files count against your limit. Anything you created with Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides (what most people call Google Docs) doesn't count. See Google's help page on Drive storage limits for even more details regarding its storage allowances.

The Box BasicsTo get started with a Box account you create a login and download apps to the devices that you want to be able to access your account. You can download and install desktop apps for Windows or Mac, as well as mobile apps for Android, BlackBerry, iOS, and Windows Phone. It also has a mobile-optimized website for other devices.

The installed Box Sync application worked seamlessly on the Windows and Mac computers on which I installed it for testing, as well as on iPhone and Android, where I've also used it. When you install Box, the program creates a new folder on your computer, and everything you put into that folder syncs across all the devices where you've also installed the Box app. You can drag and drop entire folder structures into the folder, and all the contents are synced. End of story. I prefer SugarSync's method, which lets you sync folders wherever they are on your drive, but Box's simpler solution works well, too.

When Box is active, you see icons indicating whether syncing is in progress or whether it has completed. If your device is offline, Box waits until the next time the device connects, and it syncs all your changes then.

Box's Extensive Web AppAnything you put into the syncing Box folder also becomes accessible via Box's Web app, and the Web app is worth using. It offers a whole lot more than just the ability to see, download, and share files, which is more or less what Dropbox offers.

Explore Box's Web app, and you'll see rich tools for actually working with your files. There are buttons for creating new Google docs and spreadsheets. Another tool called Box Note is a Web-based text editor that's reasonably robust. You'll also see options for creating new PowerPoint, Word, and Excel documents, though those tools require a plug-in (it's free).

Box's ability to create files right from the website would be a huge deal if it weren't already available in Google Drive and OneDrive. Those services support more file formats, and can convert files to other formats, such as .xlsx, .txt, .odt, and so forth. One handy thing you can do with documents in Box is assign a task to someone who's associated with the document. For example, you could assign your sister the task of editing a file, or ask a friend to change some graphics. These features are well suited for business settings, but many individual users can appreciate them, too.

Also on the collaboration front, Box's Web app cleverly lets you import contacts from several major services, such as Outlook (or a .CSV file) and Gmail, so that it's much simpler to enter email addresses when you need to share files.

Viewing images you've saved to your file-syncing account via a Web app is part and parcel of most syncing and storage services, but Box goes the extra mile by providing a built-in music player, too. That means if you store music or audiobooks in Box, you can play the tracks on any computer just by logging into your Box Web account. The same goes for the Box mobile apps.

Mobile AppsIn my testing, both Box for iPhone and Box for Android were extremely responsive and easy to use. Navigating them was easy. They also include a few unique mobile features, such as the ability to add a passcode and an auto-upload option for backing up photos and videos you take on your mobile device to your Box account. Most of the big online storage players also offer automatic photo and video uploading, however, but it is a wonderful way to make sure you have copies of your smartphone photos, should your device go missing.

Box ExtrasOne of Box's strengths is how well it plays with other apps. You can connect a Box account to a long list of services and programs, from Salesforce to Chatter to Asana, and more. Many of these companion services are ones that individuals might have for personal use, but many more are better suited for businesses. Businesses that use Box will be pleased that it's exceptionally good at integrating with other tools.

Inside the BoxBox syncs your files, gives you 10GB space for free in a Personal account, and offers some extremely convenient features. Its online document editing isn't quite as strong as that offered by Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive, but the point of Box is that you don't have to choose one or the other. If you're willing to set it up, Box connects with so many other great tools, including those made by Google and Microsoft, that it's easy to add to your toolkit without feeling the need to give up something else in exchange. For all this flexibility and generosity, Box joins those two services as a PCMag Editors' Choice for file-syncing and cloud storage services.

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About the Author

Jill Duffy is a contributing editor, specializing in productivity apps and software, as well as technologies for health and fitness. She writes the weekly Get Organized column, with tips on how to lead a better digital life. Her first book, Get Organized: How to Clean Up Your Messy Digital Life is available for Kindle, iPad, and other digital forma... See Full Bio

Box (Personal)

Box (Personal)

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